Here are some of the top stories from The Kathmandu Post (August 22, 2019).
Nepal and India to start a new chapter in bilateral ties
Nepal and India on Wednesday agreed to enter into “a new era of partnership and cooperation” with Narendra Modi’s re-election in India and the formation of a stable government in Nepal.
A Wednesday meeting between Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and visiting Indian Minister for External Affairs S Jaishankar revolved around increasing bilateral engagements and taking relations between the two countries to new heights, according to leaders familiar with the conversation.
Jaishankar arrived in Kathmandu on Wednesday afternoon, leading an Indian delegation to the fifth meeting of the Nepal-India Joint Commission at the foreign minister-level.
Why Nepal’s public schools have a poor report card
Nepal has made significant improvements in student enrolment at the school level. With around 97 percent of enrolment in grade one, Nepal is among the leading countries in South Asia when it comes to access to education. However, there are numerous challenges, especially when it comes to quality. Every time a new education minister takes charge, they vow to improve public schools. But results of the different national level examinations and various study reports suggest that such commitments never translate into effective action. The Secondary Education Examination results published in June showed a dismal performance of students from public schools. The exam is taken as a cumulative test of the students’ entire school level study. Besides, a recent report by the Education Review Office suggested that investment in the education sector has failed to yield desired results.
Here is everything you want to know why the quality of public schools is deteriorating and what possible interventions are needed.
Energy Ministry proposes check on power consumption by businesses
The Energy Ministry in a draft bill related to energy consumption and saving has proposed to form a Nepal Energy Efficiency and Conservation Board which will monitor the energy consumed by production and service-oriented businesses and enforce measures to make such entities more energy efficient.
Energy efficiency has been defined in the bill as ‘process related to ways of controlling or managing the consumption of power such that the available quantity of fossil fuels, biofuels, electricity is put into optimum utilisation or usage of power is minimised without lowering outputs.
No plastic bottles and bags in Everest region from January
Come January, the Everest region is set to become a no-plastic zone.
After scrambling for years to deal with the piles of waste in the Everest region, which has gained notoriety as the ‘world’s highest garbage dump’, the local authority has endorsed a plan to declare the whole area a ‘no plastic’ zone from the next year.
The Khumbu Pasang Lhamu Rural Municipality in Solukhumbu district has decided that starting January 1, 2020, it will impose a ban on the use of plastic bags, bottles and other plastic items, citing their adverse effects on human health, especially in the whole Everest region.
28.12°C Kathmandu
